I work for a college and went to heat up my lunch in a lounge area earlier. A couple security guards had just arrived since someone tipped them off that there were three small children hanging out that had been there for quite awhile. The oldest child was 6 and the other two appeared to be 3 and 4.Apparently while their mother went to school for the morning, they were free to hang out by themselves. They had some coloring supplies and a bottle of Crush soda to share.
The Mom walked back in while I was waiting for my lunch and was whisked away by security. I'm not sure what they will do.
My heart cries for them. I appreciate the Mom is trying to get an education but to leave such little ones alone is awful to me.
Re: What the heck is wrong with people?
Oh goodness. That is terrible, a 6 year old cannot care for two younger kids.
Like you, I also feel bad for the mom, eventhough she made a stupid choice, I am sure she did it because she had no other option. (which doesn't excuse it, just mentioning)
I wonder what will happen too.
Oh good golly. I'm hoping this was just a fluke and she had no child care for today, and that it's not a regular occurrence.
I will say, if that were MY 3 year old son, he would have set off fire alarms, broken into the pop machine, and probably set some laboratory rats loose.
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Ditto. That's so sad. I hate that people are in such a position to have to make choices like this.
Wow that is very sad. I feel bad for the mom even though she made a bad decision. I am sure it was out of desparation.....but still.
I guess she could have left them at home which would have been even worse?
I'm sure this is the case since I know folks around here would notice if it happened frequently. If she only knew the types of characters who come and go from this place. I wouldn't consider it a safe environment for kids to hang out in by themselves. The stories I could tell...
Hopefully security gave her a good enough scare to think twice in the future.
I will say the kids obviously know how to fend for themselves. The 6 year old walked up to me and asked how she could get one of the goodies out of the vending machine.
Okay, I'll play the "ivory tower" bad guy for a moment. Honestly, I don't understand what possible excuse is good enough, here. We are all forced to make adult decisions, each day; and, sometimes, they are tough ones that leave us sacrificing things that we deem self-important (in this case, possibly a passing course in her class). However, this choice was a very poor one.
As always, I'm not saying my opinion is the right one or the only one. In fact, tomorrow, I might even have a completely different opinion of this situation. I'm just rather annoyed and peeved, today.
This just gave me chills.
No, I think you are on the right track. We are faced with decisions as parents and even those that might put us in a hard position should still not be that difficult to make when it comes to the safety of our kids.
From an outside viewpoint, she had several options with the obvious one being staying home. My next contender would be to explain to her professors that she will be bringing three (hopefully quiet) children to sit in class today. As an adjunct, I've been faced with this request and happily obliged as long as class wasn't disrupted and it wasn't a common occurance.
I am not trying to judge and in fact I do my best to sympathize with the Mother but as a Mother myself, I wanted to grab the kids and hide them in my office.
Exactly.
ETA: To be clear, I'm not saying that the mother doesn't deserve our sympathy; however, she DEFINITELY deserves a swift kick in the arse.
I'd love to hunt them down and smack them with my copy of HTOTB.
Totally. The kids were handling themselves very well. They looked confused as to why there was such a big to-do about them going on. This makes me believe they've been training for this for quite some time.
I agree on all parts.
I am very cynical. Maybe staying home because her childcare fell through wasn't an option because she'd already missed class so many times that she couldn't miss another...
IMO, that's called her fault.
Understandably she went because she probably had to but I'm sure a better alternative could have been found to where she set up camp for her kids.
The lounge the children were sitting in is nowhere close to any classrooms on our campus. Not even on the same floor. Surely there was a better option.
Having talked to mom's in tough spots too many times, there honestly are few profs who are complete jerks who would not work with her. I can't even count the number of times I've given makeups or whatnot to mom's who can't find childcare, or have sick kids. Now if it's a chronic problem then that is another story, but even then so there is no excuse for putting your kids in danger like that on a college campus. She definitely needs smacked upside the head.
I don't disagree. A chain of bad decisions.
This.
Although I will admit there is a part of me that wonders what the whole story is. Single mom? No family around? Felt like she had no other choice? Just curious.
Although... I could be a lot more sympathetic if it were for a job to support her family, rather than school. Not that school isn't important, but...
Guess I'd like more info before giving the whole side-eye. Trying to give the benefit of the doubt.
Yup, everyone has a story. Just because I'm late for work, I'm not going to speed with my kids in the car.
I know, not the same but still stresses the same point.
You'd have to know the environment to totally get it. I get to see the safety and security report so I know a bit about what goes on around there. Once again, not to judge but still very concerning to the few who witnessed it today.